Microsoft cancels Amazon and eBay rival 'Project Brazil' e-commerce plans
The Wall Street has claimed that Microsoft had been considering a move into the online retail sector holding talks with suppliers and tech companies.
The move would have saw the computing giant offering a service rivalling that of Amazon and eBay. Discussed under the codename 'Project Brazil' the e-commerce marketplace was to be funded through advertising revenue from the Bing search engine.
Sources claim that the software company held talks with retailers and tech firms, with the aim of launching the merchant website with unified shopping cart and shipping options.
Images show how Microsoft had planned to integrate the store into the Windows operating system and hardware including the forthcoming Xbox One before scrapping the plans for undisclosed reasons.
“Project Brazil was an incubation to enable a more direct commerce model between customers and brands and merchants,” commented a Microsoft spokesperson.
“We remain committed to finding new and differentiated ways to enable a richer, more task oriented approach to e-commerce and online advertising.”